"Fashion" from the Kyoto Institute, pub.Taschen
£30 in bookshops, £35 from the Taschen web site.

18th century onwards, large photographic pics plus fashion plates. Two hardbacked books in a cardboard cover, recently published. Contains some of the photographs from the Kyoto Institute's two previous editions but larger size. The twentieth and 21st century fashions are rather arty, but the earlier stuff is superb.

Plus, for an overview of how fashion changed/evolved/developed/swung back and forth -

The Corset, A cultural History by Valerie Steele
Get your underwear right and you are 3/4 of the way there.

Costume 1066 - 1990s by John Peacock
Take this one with a pinch of salt. Look at the pictures to get a feel for what's in fashion then go to original sources to check them out. In the Tudor section I can see he's taken the bodice of one portrait and added the skirt of another and the sleeves of another........

The Evolution of Fashion , Pattern and cut from 1066 to 1930, by Margot Hamilton Hill and Peter Buckland.
I use it as a starting point when asked to make clothes outside my comfort zone. It gives you a pattern for each style of clothing.
Again please dig deeper as it's not the be all and end all of how to do it.

Re: Evolution of Fashion - this is a book intended for the theatre. The pics are good, they give the correct silhouette and a good idea of what to aim for. But the patterns are very skimpy, and they do not give measurements. My Elizabeth I dress came out of this book and it was a few years before I realised that I needed to add another couple of widths of fabric to the skirt and another circle of fabric to the ruff to make them look like the paintings of the time.

The Journal of the Tool and Trades History Society is a goldmine of information. The individual researchers dig deep and produce woodcuts and prints from the times. So you can see fashions that artisans wore in their workshops as well as articles like combs and thimbles.

the visual history of costume books published by batsford - not the single volume version (though that's good too, but condensed) the best are the seperate volumes - 14th & 15th centuries, 16th c, 17th c, 18th c, 19thc, and 20th c. different authors for each volume.
and if you see decent copies of the earlier periods going for less than a hundred quid, grab them!!!!

a short history of costume & armour - worth it for the pictures of brass rubbings and things that you don't see v often.

history of costume by carl kohler - IGNORE THE TEXT, AND ANY PATTERNS, (was written a LONG time ago, and has largely been discredited - but it's worth having for the pictures - again, unusual.

pretty much anything by aileen ribeiro (particularly dress and morality).

the fashion in deatail books - historical fashion in detail - 17th and 18th c by hart & north - 19th c (don't know author) - modern fashion in detail (for the drool factor ) - and dress in detail from around the world. loads of really cool close up pics of stuff in the v&a collections - and line drawings of the rest of the garment.

a concise history of fashion (also has other titles) by james laver (get e newer version cos it has corrections).

Medieval to Stuart - little books picked up in churches on brasses. I don't know whether each county does them but there are several covering Suffolk. They show rich but not super rich people. You have to work out for yourself whether the clothes match the date the person died or represent when they were alive, ie. they are old fashioned compared to the burial date.

Dear Dathi, I have a really bad photocopy that Janet Arnold gave me. I also think that it is not complete. I can possibly find it if you are really desperate. However, there are now so many pics and so much guidance on people's websites and so much art is available on the web these days, that it is possibly not going to be as useful as it was when she published 30 years ago. Gosh, 30 years!!

If you lived closer you could have come round to look in my personal 'library'. Let me know when you are next in south-east London.

This work is on beginning period hand-tailoring as reconstructed from period sources, extant garments and practical application of the techniques. It will not be released until 17th Feb, 2011 but it can be pre-ordered.

Im not sure if this is what you're after, but I've just done a couple of articles on Middle-Ages costume that I think may be helpful to people. They're fairly comprehensive, evidenced, contain the Old-English of many components, and have afew helpful tips for re-enactors in there too.

Anglo-Saxon Costume -OverviewThe dress of Germanic tribes during the early middle-ages was the basis of later styles, but also had a number of aspects greatly influenced by earlier civilisations, or contemporary societies elsewhere in Europe and beyond. In particular, many styles were carried through from the Roman period.Although fashions varied throughout the period, the general trend is the integration of older, conventional styles with new ideas arriving through extensive trade networks, or through natural progress on a more local level.

Practical NotesReenactors and living history participants may be able to put together good quality costumes from the middle-ages quite cheaply. Items of clothing can be purchased from Reenactors' fairs, or online from sites such as Jelling Dragon (see links). Alternatively they can be made using simple patterns, natural wool or linen, and should ideally be hand-stitched.

As a matter of comfort, linen is probably preferable to natural wool. As most costumed events tend to take place in the warmer summer months, linen may be a better choice as it tends to be cooler and more breathable.

For newcomers like me, this is a great thread! I've looking through all of them and have ordered some on Amazon - looking forward to get to reading and learning, especially the ones about jewellery. (Good tip for people who frequent Amazon and eBay, by the way: I ordered this load with a voucher code from http://www.voucherbox.co.uk/ - might be of use to others, too )